Tamil Nadu NGO Urges Sustained Action Against Illegal Stone Quarrying in Five Districts
Arappor Iyakkam, a voluntary organisation that works to combat corruption and the plunder of natural resources, has called on the Tamil Nadu Government to take sustained, proactive, and transparent action against illegal stone mining in five southern districts. The appeal follows a survey of 29 quarries in Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi, Kanniyakumari, and Virudhunagar, where residents had complained that unlawful mining posed serious threats to their safety and health.
On Tuesday, the organisation released its findings and recommendations to the government at a press conference in Chennai. Speaking at the event were Jayaram Venkatesan of Arappor Iyakkam, V. Suresh, national general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, and N. Udhayarajan, director of Uvakai Research Foundation.
According to the speakers, Arappor Iyakkam organised a public hearing in Tirunelveli on November 2 last year after receiving a series of complaints from villagers living near stone quarries. An independent team then visited the quarries — 25 in Tirunelveli and Tenkasi districts, two in Thoothukudi, and one each in Kanniyakumari and Virudhunagar — and met affected residents before compiling the survey report.
“We met people from all walks of life to get their opinion about stone quarrying happening close to their homes. Besides obtaining their statements, we gathered relevant information through the Right to Information Act, photos taken during the field visit, satellite and drone images, affidavits filed by the government in court on various occasions etc. We compared all the information to corroborate the charges being made by the villagers, which are unfortunately true,” Mr. Suresh said.
Residents told the surveyors about the social, environmental, and health problems caused by the uncontrolled and massive blasting of subsurface rocks. They also reported damage to roads, drinking water pipelines, irrigation tanks, and rain-fed tanks caused by ultra-heavy vehicles transporting the stones, mostly to Kerala, where the illicit miners reportedly earned substantial sums from rough stones, blue metal, and M-Sand.
The panellists noted that quarrying carried out without adhering to approved mining plans and beyond permissible depths has seriously depleted the groundwater table. “Farming operations are wiped out completely while cattle-rearers lose drinking water for their animals. The cloud of dust billowing from the stone quarries round-the-clock destroys the grazing areas,” they said.
The team recommended that the government approach the issue with an open mind, giving due importance to those who oppose mining operations near their hamlets, rather than deciding only in favour of majority voices at public hearings.
Members of the independent survey team included Nandakumar Siva, biologist Thanigaivel, architect Udhayarajan, and social activist Nandhini. They found that massive explosions in the quarries affected houses located 300 metres away and caused cracks in concrete houses situated over a kilometre away. Dust from the blasts and from the transportation of rocks had irreparably affected nearby hamlets, cultivable lands, grazing lands, and water bodies.
“The stone-laden heavy trucks weighing up to 40 tonnes damage the roads. Buffer zones should be created between the quarries and nearby villages for growing trees to minimise pollution at least to some extent,” they said.
The objective behind the independent survey was to find a lasting solution to the suffering caused to people and the damage to natural resources due to illegal quarrying. “We have shared 140 pages of survey findings with the Tamil Nadu Government and senior bureaucrats for appropriate action, which should ensure accountability, transparency, and sustained action for curbing illegal mining,” the speakers added.
